Did that registry thing work for you? I tried it myself, had no luck. For me, the problem was the "Acer quick access" software. For some reason, almost every time the computer booted up or woke from sleep, this program would turn off num lock. You can find it in the Programs and uninstall it. Uninstalling it means you lose the on-screen indicator that normally comes up when you enable/disable num lock manually, and a couple other "function" buttons might not work.... wish I had a better fix, but given how often I use the number pad, not having to turn it back on every time I stepped away from the computer was well worth it.